Education body unveils new A’ level curriculum

KIGALI - The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has introduced new subject combinations in order to reduce several subjects that have been dimmed as unnecessary. In a phone interview yesterday, the Director General of NCDC, Charles Gahima said that the older version of combinations was ineffective as students were taking many subjects which were not relevant to what they were going to pursue. “The subjects were many and unnecessary, you could find a person who is expecting to become a pharmacist studying Geography which would not help him or her anywhere in his or her carrier,” he underscored. NCDC is charged with developing curricula and pedagogical support materials in line with needs and aspirations of Rwanda with an aim of developing critical, well informed, self reliant, patriotic scientifically aware and competitive students. According to Gahima, another reason for changing the curriculum was to harmonise the educational system of Rwanda to be in line with East African countries. “The new system is the one that is in force in other East African countries which will allow our students to compete with their counterparts from other countries.” Unlike the previous curriculum, where many subjects were being offered randomly and not inline with what students wanted to pursue in future, the new one was designed to fit students’ future prospects. According to the new curriculum, at A-level, a student will offer five core subjects which include general paper that are examinable non examinable subjects, extra-curricular activities including sports, cultural activities, religious studies and library research. Gahima says that the new curriculum will be time-saving and will encourage specialisation since it caters for the needs of the student from the lower stage of studying up to A-level. Ends